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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

about tailgaters on country roads...

62 replies

ShorthandLongnose · 30/03/2015 09:30

Visited a friend this weekend in a part of the country I don't know. I'm a city/suburbs driver normally and admit I find the prospect of hurtling along bendy country roads at 60mph slightly unnverving, but I know it's irritating to be stuck behind someone doing a lot less than the speed limit so everywhere I went I tried to keep up with the limit (varied from 30 through villages to 60 - all single carriageways).

I am a bit Captain Sensible about 30mph limits and always keep to those quite strictly.

everywhere I went I was tailgated by (I assume) local drivers who know the roads and who seemed to think I should be doing 70 minimum, especially on the single carriageways. (No place for safely overtaking on these roads - blind bends galore).

Along the way I came across a really nasty crash - car completely overturned, someone still trapped inside, two fire engines and an air ambulance. (I think everyone was OK in the end although not completely sure.)

AIBU to think that people who try to force other drivers to go faster than the speed limit on roads they don't know should be strung up by their hair until they can recite the Highway Code blindfold?

OP posts:
Mrsstarlord · 30/03/2015 09:32

Were you in Cornwall by any chance? It's a matter of pride for people to drive like this, sets them apart from the Emmets so that they can achieve a sense of superiority and belonging. ??

honeysucklejasmine · 30/03/2015 09:34

Knowing the road well does not make you psychic unfortunately. There is no way to tell what's round the corner. YANBU.

Original poster
ShorthandLongnose · 30/03/2015 09:36

Haha, I wasn't no - was in Somerset. But yes I can imagine some of the locals getting very tutty about Easter holidays and all these Londoners coming down and driving in a legal and safe manner on their precious roads. Made me SO CROSS.

OP posts:
howabout · 30/03/2015 09:36

YANBU. But I think reciting the highway code is not enough. They need to be able to implement it. Also I cannot stand people who hurtle towards me at top speed on single track roads because they expect me to reverse for them as they are incapable of such a feat.

PuttingouthefirewithGasoline · 30/03/2015 09:36

Tailagating is one of my hugest bug bears, it drives me insane, it really does because the IMPACT of an idiot driving so close can be so catastrophic and of course when they drive so close, it makes you go SLOWER which makes them MORE angry.

I hate them. I wish cars had some clever rear thing where they could tell if cars were too close for too long at certain speeds and distances and FINE THEM

Original poster
ShorthandLongnose · 30/03/2015 09:39

The thing is I'm quite a stubborn person but I found myself driving faster than I thought was really safe on some stretches because I knew the driver behind was irritated - you don't tailgate if you're not irritated, I'm guessing.

Obviously on long straight stretches where you can SEE what's ahead I don't mind gunning it a bit.

What's wrong with these people?

OP posts:
Original poster
ShorthandLongnose · 30/03/2015 09:41

It doesn't make me go more slowly but I was fantasising about having a rear window sticker reading 'tailgaters have less sex' or something

OP posts:
Whatdoesaduckdo · 30/03/2015 09:42

I have lived in a very rural area for 10 years and I hate this I end up finding somewhere to pull in briefly and let them pass as they may not want to make it to the end of their journey in one piece but I do.
I know I shouldn't have to as I'm driving legally and safely but it unnerves me.

pinkje · 30/03/2015 09:44

I tell myself it's because they are not confident drivers so they have to sit in my slipstream. Helps deal with some of the frustration.

LindyHemming · 30/03/2015 09:44

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster
ShorthandLongnose · 30/03/2015 09:45

Middle-aged men in massive posh Landrovers seemed to be the worst culprits. Although I went out with a Somerset boy when I was young and him and his mates used to drive like absolute lunatics around those roads as well.

What is their PLAN if they go round a bend and there's an obstruction? Just what do they think is going to happen?

OP posts:
Sunnymeg · 30/03/2015 09:45

YANBU. I am in rural Somerset. The road we take to DS's school passes through several farms. The road cuts through the farms and sometimes the farmer moves his animals over the road to the pasture on the other side. I always slow down as it is not unusual to find sheep or cows in the middle of the road and I have lost count of the times I have been flashed at or beeped at by the driver behind. This is then followed by the screech of their brakes as they realise why I dropped my speed.

Whatdoesaduckdo · 30/03/2015 09:46

I do also believe though that around here it's common etiquette to not the gun it in the straights and then be in your brakes again at that point you should just allow yourself to be overtaken. People are less irate if you stay at a consistent speed rather than slow gunning it slow as that just increases irritation.

Original poster
ShorthandLongnose · 30/03/2015 09:46

Sympathies to anyone who has to deal with this regularly Flowers Maybe I should print up those bumper stickers after all, might make a fortune Grin

OP posts:
Original poster
ShorthandLongnose · 30/03/2015 09:48

whatdoesaduckdo aha I didn't know that - OK I'll let them overtake next time!

OP posts:
AnyFucker · 30/03/2015 09:48

I hate this too

as well as on those narrow roads, they play "chicken" coming in the opposite direction at speed so that in order to avoid a clash of wing mirrors you end up virtually in the roadside hedge

CrohnicallyInflexible · 30/03/2015 09:48

If someone's tailgating me, it makes me extremely anxious, and I pull over and let them pass whenever possible. That way, if it's something about the way I'm driving that's irritating them, they can go on their way and calm down. If they're just driving like a knob, at least I won't be the one that they go into the back of.

Original poster
ShorthandLongnose · 30/03/2015 09:49

(although I do think that people who are irritated by inconsistent speeds caused by changes in speed limits should get off the roads tbh)

OP posts:
passmethewineplease · 30/03/2015 09:51

They're everywhere. Absolute idiot.

On the school run the other day a car overtook me on a bend Shock

I was not speeding around a narrow bend especially as you often meet tractors there.

I can't help but wish they'd have a very minor bump that would shake them up a bit and re evaluate their dangerous idiotic driving.

I do admit to using a certain gesture to these people. Blush DD just thinks I'm waving saying thanks for letting me go.

can only hope she doesn't repeat the wave

CrohnicallyInflexible · 30/03/2015 09:52

Yes whatdoesaduckdo there is a road near me that is national speed limit, quite bendy except for two straight sections where it is safe to overtake. The max safe speed around the bends is around 40, they're quite wide with good visibility, however I used to get annoyed when someone would take the corners at 20-30, then speed up to 50 ish in the straight sections, then slow again for the next bends. They would be just fast enough to prevent me overtaking, but not fast enough to not impede my progress.

I never tailgated though- there is no excuse for that!

BitchTradeMark · 30/03/2015 09:54

Mrsstarlord

Were you in Cornwall by any chance? It's a matter of pride for people to drive like this, sets them apart from the Emmets so that they can achieve a sense of superiority and belonging.

Haha, no. We learn to drive on those roads so it stands to reason that we develop that confidence to navigate around country roads with much more ease than visitors. I don't tailgate as I hate it being done to me so OP YANBU.

My one pet hate with people who don't know the roads but try to drive faster anyway is driving on both sides of the road (more specifically, having the drivers side hanging over the white lines). I tend to hang way back from those drivers because the amount of times I've seen one do it on a corner to find a tractor/lorry coming and swerving out the way at 50mph makes me wince. I'd rather see people unused to roads drive slower and navigate better than try 'keep up' with locals and risk their lives.

Mumblechum1 · 30/03/2015 09:56

Just pull over and let them past.

I'm frequently stuck between slow drivers on our country roads and they ALWAYS speed up on a straight bit so I can't get past them.

I don't tailgate though. Just quietly seethe as they bimble along.

Charlesroi · 30/03/2015 09:57

Tractors, sheep, cyclists, walkers (no pavements) and people out on their horses. It makes me cringe when I see boy racers on country lanes, so thanks for your consideration OP.

Thesnowmansnose · 30/03/2015 09:59

friend lived in N Wales for a couple of years
First year I had to ask him several times to slow down on small country roads as I thought he was driving too fast. 'It's fine, I'm driving within my stopping distance'. Hmm
Next year, he was MASSIVELY more cautious, and I asked why. Had had a (minor) head on collision, as he'd never thought about the fact that a car coming towards him also had a stopping distance, and so they'd 'met' before he could stop.

EveBoswell · 30/03/2015 10:05

...so everywhere I went I tried to keep up with the limit...

A speed limit is not a target. It's not a speed at which you must drive. Country roads with lots of bends should tell you this in themselves. You cannot see round a bend so you slow down in case there's an obstruction there.

No one likes to be tailgated so just pull over (if there's space) and let the tailgater overtake. I did a course where I learned not to let them bother me. Now they have to stay behind me until one of us turns off or he speeds up, overtakes and gets into trouble and then it's his own fault.

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